Aboitiz explores options for Batangas biomass plant

MANILA, Philippines — Aboitiz Power Corp. is exploring other options for the planned sale its 8.8-megawatt (MW) biomass power plant assets in Lian, Batangas as its year-end target lapsed.

In a text message, AboitizPower president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Rubio said the contract with Astoca Inc. to liquidate the Aseagas assets has already expired.

And as the contract expired, the said assets have yet to be sold.

“As of now, there are still no takers and the contract with Astoca has expired. We are exploring other options and talking directly with interested parties,” Rubio said.

Astoca was hired last year to sell the biomass plant assets after AboitizPower ceased to operate the power plant in 2018.

Astoca — short for “assets to cash” — Is a leading industrial asset disposal and valuation advisory company in Asia.

The company had set an end-2019 deadline to unload its biomass power plant assets with several parties expressing their interest for the asset. However, nothing has materialized from the sale.

For now, AboitizPower is still keen on selling the power plant assets to focus on other renewable energy (RE) technologies.

“Yes that’s our intent. We would like to focus on other RE technologies moving forward,” Rubio said.

The 8.8-MW biomass plant is the first biomass project of AboitizPower and was supposed to start commercial operations in the second quarter of 2017.

It is under Aseagas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of AboitizPower through Aboitiz Renewables Inc., its holding company for investments in the RE space.

However, Aseagas permanently ceased operations of the facility in January 2018 after the plant was previously placed on extended shutdown towards the end of 2017 due to lack of feedstock.

As a result of the closure, total value affected is estimated to be at P3.7 billion, which represents Aseagas invested equity of P3.45 billion and the company’s estimated remaining obligations of around P250 million.

In May 2018, AboitizPower announced plans to sell the biomass power facility.